I was born in Provincetown, Mass. This was not something I admitted readily while growing up because my classmates only knew the town as "that place with all the crazy gay people." It was a different place when my mom lived there during the sixties, full of artists. We were year-rounders.

I think Americans are fascinated with where our families came from and when, because we're a nation of newcomers.

That said, on one side of my family I am descended from Gov William Bradford, with ancestors from Wales, England and Scotland. One set of great-grandparents on the other side came over from Sweden, another set came from France, and into the mix was tossed my Abnaki great-grandfather.